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Phlox
Phlox (played by John Billingsley) was the Denobulan chief medical officer of the ''Enterprise'' (NX-01) during its historic voyage. Early Life and Career Phlox was born sometime in the late 21st century on Denobula. As a child, he remembered his grandmother talking to him about the "evil Antarans". He promised himself he'd give his children an objective view of the Antarans. (ENT: "The Breach") Not long after Phlox became a physician in the 2110s there was an explosion in a cargo ship orbiting Denobula Triaxa. Phlox was part of the first medical team to arrive at the scene, where they discovered seventeen bodies on the bridge alone. That was the first time Phlox had seen that many dead people in one place before. (ENT: "Fight or Flight") Phlox also once served as a medic in the Denobulan infantry. While in the infantry, he learned that battlefields are unpredictable places, even under a flag of truce. (ENT: "Cease Fire") :It remains unclear in which conflict the Denobulan infantry could have been involved at this time. Perhaps the Denobulan army intervened in an unrelated war as a peacekeeping force. Phlox was once nearly overwhelmed with 50 patients in a refugee camp while serving on Matalas. (ENT: "Dear Doctor") :Sometime prior to 2149, Doctor Phlox joined the Interspecies Medical Exchange. In 2149, Dr. Phlox attended an Interspecies Medical Exchange conference on Tiburon, where he briefly met a member of the Mazarite delegation. Years later, he found out that it was actually Dr. Antaak, a Klingon expert in metagenic research. (ENT: "Affliction") In 2151, Phlox was working as a Doctor at Starfleet Medical in San Francisco. (ENT: "Broken Bow") Aboard Enterprise .]] After displaying considerable expertise at sustaining the life of Klaang the Klingon, Phlox was brought on board Enterprise shortly before the ship launched in April 2151. (ENT: "Broken Bow") After having lived on Earth for "many years", Phlox had come to the conclusion that Humans were anatomically simplistic, but also felt that they made up for their biological deficiencies with their charming optimism and their Chinese cuisine (particularly, Egg drop soup). (ENT: "Home", "Broken Bow") Phlox used very unorthodox medical practices due to the relatively primitive medical technology of the early 2150s. He would frequently use animals in various ways to assist in his patients' healing; his sickbay on Enterprise was quite a menagerie. Animals in it included the Altarian marsupial, the immunocytic gel worm, the osmotic eel, the Regulan bloodworm, tribbles, and the Pyrithian bat. (ENT: "Broken Bow", "Two Days and Two Nights", "Chosen Realm") Early in the mission, the crew of Enterprise found a stranded ship with its entire crew complement dead. Phlox determined that the bodies had been drained of vital fluids. He also helped Ensign Hoshi Sato to survive the misson when she panicked after aliens attacked Enterprise. (ENT: "Fight or Flight") His medical abilities were soon tested when the crew of Enterprise discovered an unexplored planet, and an away team from the starship became dangerously paranoid. Phlox was able to determine that pollen from the planet's indigenous plant life was affecting the team. Not only were they delusional, but the pollen was toxic. Phlox was able to produce an antidote and save the crew members. (ENT: "Strange New World") Phlox later determined that Chief Engineer Charles "Trip" Tucker had become pregnant after contact with a Xyrillian female. (ENT: "Unexpected") His medical expertise would again prove useful when Enterprise encountered a lost Earth colony named Terra Nova. An asteroid impact had poisoned the planet's atmosphere in late 2078. Mistakenly believing that Earth had attacked the planet, the Novans were forced to seek refuge underground. Phlox later discovered that their water supply was poisoned by radiation. He gained the confidence of the Novans when he cured Nadet, an elder Novan, from lung cancer. This helped to build trust between the Novans and the mostly Human crew of Enterprise. (ENT: "Terra Nova") Eventually, Phlox also became a counselor on the starship, who helped the other crew members with their problems. In June 2151, Subcommander T'Pol confided in him that she had been arranged to be married. (ENT: "Breaking the Ice") In September 2151, Enterprise visited Valakis, a pre-warp civilization with two distinct humanoid races - the Valakians and the Menk. During this time, Phlox had his first intimate encounter with a member of the starship's crew. Crewman Elizabeth Cutler, a female biologist assigned to Enterprise, became romantically interested in him. She helped him in his efforts to cure a disease that was afflicting the Valakians, but not the Menk. Phlox learned that the Valakians were not suffering from a curable disease, but a genetic mutation that would eventually result in extinction. Phlox and Archer disagreed on whether to help the Valakians, as the doctor objected to interfering in their evolution and advised that nature should be allowed to take its course. Archer finally agreed and they transported to the planet's surface with medicine to ease the Valakians' symptoms. However, the officers refused to provide the Valakians with warp drive, which they wanted in order to seek other races that could help them. Phlox and Ensign Cutler ultimately decided to simply continue their platonic friendship, since Phlox already had three wives. (ENT: "Dear Doctor") The next month, Enterprise detected a Klingon ''Raptor''-class, adrift in the atmosphere of a gas giant. Phlox determined that a Klingon rescued from the ship had been poisoned by a neural toxin. In fact, the entire crew of the Klingon ship was being poisoned. Phlox found a cure for the toxin and cured the Klingon crew. (ENT: "Sleeping Dogs") In 2152, during the second year of Enterprise's voyage, Archer and several other crew members were attacked by an organism that entwined them in its tentacles and fed off their nervous systems. Phlox tried to free them by using EM radiation, but the procedure failed. The crew members were finally released when Sato managed to communicate with the organism. (ENT: "Vox Sola") Phlox also saved Ensign Travis Mayweather's life after the helmsman was injured in a rock climbing incident. The Denobulan had to be woken during his annual six-day hibernation sleep, and acted somewhat irrationally as a result. (ENT: "Two Days and Two Nights") After being damaged by a Romulan minefield in April 2152, Enterprise stopped at an automated repair station. Ensign Mayweather was apparently killed on the space station and his inanimate body was returned to the starship. However, Phlox determined that the body was actually a duplicate of the helmsman. In reality, the station was using Mayweather's brain as a computer processor. (ENT: "Dead Stop") Phlox saved Porthos, Archer's dog, by performing an underwater operation and replacing the animal's pituitary gland. (ENT: "A Night in Sickbay") Phlox is attacked by an alien using Hoshi's body as he attempts to find a cure for the alien possession. He would help Tucker determine that the cogenitor of the Vissian is an intelligent being and has the same mental capabilites as the Vissians. While going through de-con with T'Pol to rid themselves of a virus, T'Pol become very amorous toward Phlox. Her mating cycle has been activated by the virus. Phlox would find a cure for her, before the virus kills her. (ENT: "The Crossing", "Cogenitor", "Bounty") It was shortly after these events that Enterprise was sent after a group of cybernetic beings that had recently attacked a research team in the Arctic (Although unknown, these were some of the Borg who had attempted to prevent Earth's First Contact). During this attack, Phlox was infected with Borg nanoprobes, but his immune system managed to keep them under control until he was able to destroy the nanobots by subjecting himself to a potentially lethal radiation dose. During this time, he was briefly linked to the Borg hive mind, but was able to resist it until he could activate the treatment. (ENT: "Regeneration") After an encounter with a black hole, whose radiation had affected the crew by causing obsessive behavior, Phlox wanted to perform major surgery on Mayweather to cure him of a simple headache. The effects dissipated after the starship passed the black hole. (ENT: "Singularity") Phlox learned that T'Pol had been afflicted with Pa'nar Syndrome, a deadly brain disorder, after she had been forced to participate in a mind meld against her will. Phlox attended a medical conference on Dekendi III with a group of Vulcan doctors, but his efforts to obtain information concerning the disease were rebuffed. The Vulcans viewed the condition, and those who were affected by it, as outcasts. Phlox could not tell them that T'Pol had the disease, as the Vulcan High Command would demand that she return to her homeworld for punishment if they found out. T'Pol was left alone when one of the doctors confessed that he also performed mind melds. During this incident, one of Phlox's wives, Feezal, visited him on Enterprise. She made advances towards Commander Tucker. Although the engineer informed Phlox of Feezal's implied sexual gestures, the doctor advised Tucker not to ignore the romantic overtures. (ENT: "Stigma") During an evacuation mission, Phlox attempted to treat an Antaran named Hudak. The Antarans and Denobulans had been enemies for centuries, and Hudak consequently refused treatment. When Archer ordered Phlox to treat the Antaran, the Denobulan doctor replied by acknowledging his own responsibility to respect the wishes of his patients and still refused to treat Hudak. After several discussions with the patient, Phlox was able to convince him that he was neither bigoted nor hated Antarans. The Antaran subsequently consented to treatment. (ENT: "The Breach") The Xindi Mission In April 2153, an unidentified alien probe attacked Earth before self-destructing. Captain Archer was shocked to learn that the probe had been built by an alien race called the Xindi that was building an extremely powerful weapon designed to annihilate Earth. Starfleet permitted Archer to command Enterprise on a mission to find, and destroy, the weapon in the perilous Delphic Expanse. Although the crew were asked to choose whether to participate in the mission or to leave the ship, Phlox found the decision, to stay, easy to make. He based his choice on his strong loyalty to Archer and his realization that his medical skills would be needed more than ever. (ENT: "The Expanse") Shortly after the starship entered the Delphic Expanse, Phlox became concerned about Commander Tucker, who had been experiencing trouble sleeping due to stress from his sister's death during the first Xindi attack. The doctor asked T'Pol to administer Vulcan neuro-pressure to Tucker and she eventually complied. First contact with the Xindi was made on a Trellium mining planet, where a Xindi-Primate named Kessick worked. Members of Enterprise's crew attempted to help the Xindi escape, but Kessick was killed in the attempt. Before he died, he told Phlox the coordinates for the Xindi homeworld. However, the crew unfortunately found that the planet had been destroyed in the 2030s. (ENT: "The Xindi") As the mission continued, the crew of Enterprise discovered a planet where all life had become extinct. An away team sent from Enterprise began to develop alien characteristics, due to a virus created by the planet's inhabitants in a last attempt to re-populate their homeworld. Although Phlox found a cure, he preserved the virus to save with the remains of the species. (ENT: "Extinction") He later tried to examine a Xindi weapon that was organic. The weapon was a booby trap and almost caused an explosion. (ENT: "The Shipment") In a test of his medical ethics, Phlox created a clone of Tucker in order to save the original Human, who had been injured in an accident. The clone, named Sim, could live for only fifteen days but its organs could be used to heal Tucker. Sim discovered an enzyme that could possibly allow him to survive longer than fifteen days. Phlox examined the enzyme and verified the possibility. However, Sim had to die in order for Tucker to live. Because Phlox refused to kill another sentient being, it seemed likely that Tucker would die. Eventually, Sim gave up his life so Tucker could live and help to complete the Xindi mission. (ENT: "Similitude") Unlike most Denobulans, Phlox did not usually hallucinate to relieve stress. During the search for the Xindi superweapon, he admitted to having frequently envied those who were able to do so, as he had a habit of keeping "too much bottled up inside". (ENT: "Exile") In January 2154, Phlox determined that Archer was infected with a Xindi-Insectoid toxin that endangered the mission. (ENT: "Hatchery") The following month, Phlox was left to run Enterprise by himself and began to experience hallucinations caused by the stress of solitude. (ENT: "Doctor's Orders") He later discovered that T'Pol had become addicted to Trellium-D which had damaged her neural pathways and made her less able to repress her emotions. (ENT: "The Forgotten") The starship's mission in the Delphic Expanse came to a successful conclusion when the Xindi superweapon was destroyed. (ENT: "Zero Hour") The vessel returned to Earth shortly thereafter. (ENT: "Storm Front, Part II") Enterprise's Return Phlox was present at a ceremony held in San Francisco Bay Stadium to celebrate Enterprise's return to Earth. He collected some equipment from Enterprise, before visiting a bar on Earth with other members of the starship's crew. When a xenophobic human assaulted him there, Phlox expanded his face in an instinctive defensive posture. (ENT: "Home") Phlox returned to Enterprise before it resumed its normal missions, taking a Dr. Arik Soong on board. Soong had created a group of Human Augments, some of whom had attacked and commandeered a Klingon Bird-of-Prey, and was brought on board Enterprise to help capture them. Phlox met Soong on the starship and critized his attempt to redesign the Human species using genetics without responsibly learning from the Eugenics Wars. Soong later escaped with the Augments. (ENT: "Borderland") When a young man named Udar was found by an away team from Enterprise and brought on board the ship, Phlox examined him. The doctor told Captain Archer that Udar was in good condition except from being dehydrated and suffering from malnutrition. Archer believed he was an Augment but Phlox corrected the captain that Udar was an anomaly whose DNA was similar but not identical to the Augments and had been born without their enhanced abilities. Phlox later told Archer that Udar was ready to be released from sickbay. The captain gravely informed Phlox that his old friend, Doctor Jeremy Lucas, was at Cold Station 12, an outpost that the Augments were planning to capture as it contained the embryos of many unborn Augments. The Denobulan doctor was shocked to learn the news but appreciated Archer telling him. According to Phlox, Doctor Lucas had revealed he was being transferred in his last communique but had not revealed his next assignment. Having spent a few months at Cold Station 12 himself, Phlox was familiar with the security protocols and technology there. He urged Captain Archer to include him in the away team to retake the station and Archer soon accepted. When Enterprise arrived at the outpost, Soong and the Augments had taken the staff hostage. In order to steal the embryos, they required access codes from Dr. Lucas. He refused to give them the codes, even though they killed one of his associates. After capturing the away team from Enterprise, Malik, the leader of the Augments, threatened to kill Phlox unless Lucas complied which he ultimately did. (ENT: "Cold Station 12") Later that year, Admiral Forrest was killed in the bombing of the United Earth Embassy on Vulcan. The Vulcan High Command blamed a religious faction for the terrorist act. Phlox was able to prove that DNA on the bomb was a forgery and that a member of the High Command had planted the explosive in order to exterminate the religious faction. (ENT: "The Forge") After returning from an away mission, Commander Tucker and Ensign Sato became ill. Phlox announced that they had an incurable deadly disease. He administered them with medicine to make them sleep and to ease their pain. When they suddenly awoke and aliens announced they had possessed the officers' bodies to experience Human feelings, Phlox was shocked. Before he could warn Archer, however, his memory was erased. The aliens were actually harmless and after experiencing Human sensation, they cured the infected crew members. (ENT: "Observer Effect") In November 2154, Phlox was approached by the Interspecies Medical Exchange and asked if he was interested in becoming their Director of Xenobiology. Shortly before he was captured by Rigelians working for the Klingon Empire, Ensign Sato revealed that Phlox often frequented a restaurant called "Madame Chang's". Following his kidnapping, the Denobulan was taken to Qu'Vat colony, where, with the assistance of Doctor Antaak, Phlox was forced to help the Klingons develop a vaccine for a mutagenic virus. (ENT: "Affliction") Ten years later, Enterprise travelled to Earth to be decommissioned. On the way there, Commander Tucker was injured while trying to save Shran's daughter, Jhamel. Phlox did everything he could do to save him, but Tucker ultimately died. (ENT: "These Are the Voyages...") Family Phlox had three wives, each with two husbands, besides Phlox (A total of 720 relationships). 42 of which had romantic possibilities. 31 children in the extended family, he had 5 children: 3 sons, 2 daughters. All children left years before his assignment to Enterprise. His daughters were a surgeon and a biochemist. His oldest son was an artist, specifically a potter, and lived in the same town as his mother. He hadn't spoken to his two younger sons (one of whom was named Mettus) in several years, as they never saw eye-to-eye with Phlox. (ENT: "A Night in Sickbay") Alternate timelines In an alternate timeline, Archer was affected by parasites from a spatial anomaly and was unable to form long term memories. He awoke to find that the Xindi had destroyed Earth and most of mankind. Phlox did not accompany Enterprise to the Ceti Alpha system. Rather, he returned home to Denobula, where he spent a decade consulting with his planet's best neurosurgeons and quantum physicists on the best way to remove interspatial parasites from the brain of Jonathan Archer. Such a way was developed in 2165. He returned with a cure he believed would not only cure Archer, but restore the timeline, giving Archer another chance to save Earth. The cure was a subspace implosion that would destroy the parasites. However, Phlox was tailed to Ceti Alpha by Yedrin Koss, who gave the location of the Human colony to the Xindi. Archer and Phlox tried to alter the warp core to cause the implosion. Phlox died when the Xindi boarded Enterprise, but Archer was able to cause the implosion and restore the timeline. (ENT: "Twilight") In a different timeline where Enterprise was stranded in 2037, Phlox had nine children with Corporal Amanda Cole. Many of the ship's crew were descendants of Phlox. Phlox also discovered a way to combine the Vulcan and Human genomes, allowing Charles Tucker and T'Pol to mate and produce Lorian. In this timeline, Phlox had died by 2154. (ENT: "E²") Background *The name Phlox had been previously used in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy", however Rick Berman loved the name so much, he decided to use it again for Enterprise's doctor. Category:Enterprise (NX-01) personnel Category:Denobulans de:Phlox fr:Phlox